For the second week in the row, I had the opportunity to play a secret role game. The name of the game is Secret Hitler, and similarly to lasts weeks game, Avalon, it involves good vs evil, or more specifically, Liberals vs. Fascists. At the beginning of the game, everyone is assigned a role and a team, with the only real role of significance being that of the fascist who is named secret Hitler, and they have special rules to go with the character. The game works by passing around the role of president, with that person then assigning someone else as chancellor. Everyone then votes on whether or not they trust the pair, and if it passes, the president and chancellor can pass a legislation. The president draws three legislation tiles, a mix of fascist and liberal policies, chooses two, and then hands them to the chancellor, who chooses which one goes into law. The liberals win by passing so many liberal policies. For the fascist, it is the same with one exception, an automatic win if Hitler is elected chancellor after three fascist policies have been passed. Additional special factors come into play as well, like the president getting to shoot someone.

The hardest part of this game for me was the challenge of deception. Unlike the luxury that was last week, I was placed on the fascist team multiple times, placing me in the position of having to attempt to deceive the rest of the players, something that comes as a challenge to me, a horrible liar. Additionally, I was challenged throughout the game to figure out how to work things towards my favor, and to try to improve my strategy skills, not just go along with everyone else. After being shot twice when I was innocent, I was able to play it up later so that when I was guilty, I wasn’t accused, or was given a break because I had already been shot. I really saw leadership in this game when people were able to step up amidst the arguing and chaos and get everyone to think logically and to have a more civil discourse, which made for a more interesting game. Being on the fascist team, I was also challenged to employ more leadership skills working to take the blame away from Hitler and to successfully win the game. I think it would be fun to play this game with my friends from home who I was on the swim team with. Many of them would love the political aspect as well as the amount of logic going into the game, but could also turn it into one of those rounds that devolve into fun chaos with no logic whatsoever.